Last Saturday I went on a hike sponsored by the FL Native Plant Society to an area I don't often visit way east of Tallahassee. We were near the Suwannee River, a river many of you may recognize from an old song (read the link please — it mentions my old buddy who wrote a new FL state song). For those driving to Florida, it's southwest of I-75 and I-10 near Live Oak, FL or the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park.
The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge where we amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns. We invite you to share in the comments what you see in your own part of the world.
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February 2018
Our guide for the day was Peter K, an interpretive writer and planner for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. He's spent tons of time exploring this region.
The habitat is very simliar to my neck of the woods west of Tallahassee. We started at the Suwannee Ridge WEA (also a mitigation area) which has many sinkholes and some have cave openings. This is a fresh hole judging by the lack of moss farther inside. Peter stepped to see if there was airflow indicating a larger chamber. He will likely enlarge the opening and explore further at some point. Bears, raccoons, possums, snakes and more also use these small caves.
We took a spin around this recently burned section. Because of that and it being winter, we didn't see the rarer plants growing here. We did see these Pocket Gopher mounds. Peter said there were 19 Florida Pine snakes here, a state-listed species, They seldom came above ground, used the gopher tunnels and of course ate them.
Here's one of the smaller sinkholes.
and exposed limestone by another. All these holes and crevice are habitat for snakes, bats, and anything else needing shelter.
We moved on to another place and had lunch by Holton Spring. There's a large pond and sizable spring run. I think he said it was magnitude 1.
The cover photo shows Peter hung up on the smaller of the 2 champion Bald Cypress we saw not too far downstream. Crystal clear water - my guess on visibility using my walkingstick was 3-4 feet.
And finally we drove to another spot, maybe a mile, to the other Champion Bald Cypress. Here it is from a distance to give you perspective. From the website — stands more than 95 feet tall, measures 45 feet incircumference, and has a crown spread of 50 feet.
Another view with one of the hikers sticking her head into the opening of the hollow tree. Being hollow is what kept it from being harvested.
Big enough inside to stand up with sunlight shining in.
Our group photo circling half the tree …
I wandered off a ways on this horseshoe shaped sinkhole and saw the remnants of cypress that had been logged ages ago. Guessing that the cuts were 6-8' up. There were other old growth trees around, easily spotted by the size and unusual branching and a general ancientness to them. Peter said those probably didn't get logged since they were in depressions and sinkholes making it hard to get equipment down. This sinkhole often has deeper water, deep enough to cover these stumps and the cypress was probably floated out.
Here’s a link to the previous state champion know as The Senator. Sad end but interesting history. As usual, it’s almost 9, the bucket queue is open so here we go. Thanks for riding along and see ya in the comments.
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